Artificial Intelligence, more popularly known as AI, might no longer be the new technology on the block, but it is ‘the’ technology that everyone is talking about. Facial recognition, digital assistants, autopilots etc. are examples of the existing AI around us. AI is emerging as that disruptive technology that will change the way we live and work. While AI has been seen often in a consumer-centric world, the enterprise too is warming up to this technology.

2018 witnessed widespread adoption of AI in different industries as organizations realized the value AI brought to the table – be it in improving operations, assisting the data analytics drive, boosting innovation, and improving customer experience amongst other things. Owing to the immense value AI brings to the table, the global AI market size is expected to reach $169,411.8 million in 2025, from $4,065 million in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 55.6% from 2018 to 2025 according to MarketWatch.

So, what transformative value does AI bring for the enterprise? Here’s a look at how AI will transform enterprises and change the future of work.

1. The New age of Automation: AI is going to give automation the boost that it needs. As enterprises look towards technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), with AI we shall be moving into the world of Intelligent Process Automation. IPA combines process automation with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Machine learning (ML) and creates choreographic connections between people, processes, and systems. IPA will not only automate structured tasks but also generate intelligence from process execution.IPA is all set to increase the level of transparency in business processes, optimizing back-office operations, increasing process efficiency and customer experience, and improving workforce productivity considerably. Along with this, IPA also holds the promise of reducing costs and risks and promises more effective fraud detection. Owing to these benefits, the IPA market is expected to be worth $13.75 billion by 2023.
2. The Rise and Rise of Chatbots: The friendly chatbot has already made some inroads into the enterprise. With AI, the chatbot invasion is going to become more pervasive in the enterprise of the future. Customer-facing industries such as retail, healthcare, banking, and financial services shall witness the rise of AI-powered voice assistants such as Alexa or Siri to create interactive experiences for the customer without pushing the load of delivering exceptional customer experiences on the staff alone.
   
   Chatbots will also become the norm to service the internal customers of the organizations, the employees. Enterprise chatbots will be powered by AI technologies such as NLP (Natural Language Processing), semantic search, and voice recognition. They will enhance search capabilities and deliver a new way for employees to interact with corporate data to improve their productivity.
3. AI and the UX Impact: The focus on User Experience or UX is only going to keep increasing. With AI, the user experience will not be driven by guesswork but by faster analysis of the right data, by the enterprises in the future.  User experiences with software products, even within the enterprise, have to mimic consumer-grade experiences.Fluid, intuitive, efficient, and highly-personalized user experiences are going to be the norm. UX is also going to be the defining factor in product success and acceptance. Enterprises will look at the insights provided by AI by intelligent information gathering and identifying patterns to deliver greater value to the end-user. This will make the user experience of products highly intuitive and intelligent as well.
4. Greater Intelligent Customization Capabilities: As we move deeper into the age of personalization, enterprises will have to look towards technologies such as AI to develop intelligent customization capabilities. Data is already improving the customization capabilities of enterprises.With cognitive technologies such as AI, they will be able to further improve their customization capabilities and create products that individual users will love. Leveraging user data and faster data-processing capabilities, AI can speed up interactions and provide intelligent insights to develop products and solutions that can be highly customized to meet user demands.
5. Cutting Edge Analysis To Bolster Data-Driven Decisions: AI will be leveraged in the enterprise to perform advanced data investigation in less time to improve business process, product, and service efficiencies. AI technologies have the capability to analyze usage patterns and then deliver deep insights that will take data-driven decision making to the next level.Whether it is for predictive maintenance or predictive analytics for product development, or risk management or planning, the AI impact will make the enterprise smarter and more proactive in its decision-making.
6. AI In Software Development and Testing: Software Development and Testing will also feel the AI impact as this technology gets more pervasive. To respond to the market need for robust, reliable, and high-quality software that is delivered faster, AI technologies will get ingrained into the development and testing lifecycle.With self-learning algorithms that are designed to self-improve, enterprises will be looking at improving the efficiency of the process of software development. They will leverage automated code-generation, among other things, and achieve a shorter time to market with greater confidence.

While AI has met with a certain resistance in the past, the coming years will see this technology achieve greater maturity. Given the immense value that AI can deliver, it is only a matter of time before AI will become a necessity for the enterprises that wish to remain relevant in this ever-evolving and competitive marketplace.